#CharlottesvilleCurriculum Helps Educators Respond to Tragic Events

As we look ahead to the 2017–2018 school year, teachers across the U.S. should be preparing to answer questions about last weekend’s events in Charlottesville, VA, and to lead and moderate difficult conversations in the classroom about racism, systemic bias, and bigotry.

“With so many recent events of hatred and bigotry, it’s important for educators to say something and to acknowledge and to prepare themselves the best they can for students’ questions,” said Monita K. Bell, senior editor at Teaching Tolerance.

“Young people are not immune; they see it too. To go into class and not be prepared to have those discussions is a huge disservice to students,” she added.

Started by Melinda D. Anderson, a contributing writer to The Atlantic, the hashtag seeks to “crowdsource resources that would help [educators] begin to explore the historical underpinnings of white supremacy and use the materials to help bring context and clarity to Saturday’s events in Virginia—so they could carry that back to their classrooms and schools.”

Since its inception yesterday, the hashtag has been buzzing with resources—including books, videos, webinars, articles, activities, historical documents, syllabi, and more—that are helping educators to teach the historical contexts and contemporary manifestations of social inequality, racial injustice, and discrimination.

As part of ILA’s efforts to help educators confront social issues in the classroom, we’ve compiled some of the most helpful resources that we’ve seen circulating on #CharlottesvilleCurriculum.

The Moment, a section on Teaching Tolerance’s homepage that is currently dedicated to helping educators “contextualize the event for students and to learn about the alt-right movement and white supremacy at large” through resources such as: